


The Price of Eternal Greed

by EclecticSorcerer



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Emperor Ling Yao, Gen, Greed (FMA) Lives, everyone else is dead and we meet their descendants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 20:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15057035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EclecticSorcerer/pseuds/EclecticSorcerer
Summary: An eccentric emperor is called to aid a foreign country with an inside problem and a renergance of his past. Though easy at first, it becomes apparent that the he has tread on dangerous forces beyond anyone's comprehension. With the remnants of old friends at his side, the emperor must find a way to navigate the world beyond his own, all the while safeguarding a secret no one is prepared to face.





	The Price of Eternal Greed

Mornings in the emperor’s palace were uneventfully routine. Morning tea and a large breakfast, preparation for the day’s meetings, perhaps a board game or round of cards with the staff. It was peaceful, something which Ling appreciated. Since he had become emperor, there had been one mess after another to deal with. His father, the previous emperor, really had been a complete fool. Still, mornings were Ling’s sanctuary, the calm before the storm of the day. A chance to compose himself a little. Time spared and captured in the quiet.

Then it was the meetings. Questions from the court, reports from the people, economy, trade, foreign policy, a jumble of all the interconnected systems that ran a country. Messy. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as hectic as it could be. Ling held an aura of someone whose time you wouldn’t want to waste. Proceedings were orderly as they could be, which wasn’t much, but Greed helped with that. Two minds were better than one, as the proverb went. Though conversing with the hidden homunculus set most people on edge, Ling used the opportunity to build his image. He most certainly didn’t want to present himself as a god, but if the people were to say such, so be it. The truth would be much harder for them to swallow.

Sometimes, when situations got particularly hairy between two clans, Ling would let Greed take control. The emperor was always prepared to fight his way back into his own body, but sometimes squabbling dignitaries needed the straightforward brashness Greed brought to the table. Ling was far more tolerant when it came to bullshit, which sometimes ended. Unproductively to say the least. Greed, in his own words, got shit done.

“All they do it beat around the bush and use politics to further their own petty arguments,” he would snarl later. “It’s useless! I hate uselessness. Get things done, that’s how Greed rolls!” Ling just laughed in response.

No one knew how Greed had survived the Promised Day. Ling had mourned him for a long while, even holding a small funeral upon his return to Xing. Greed had laughed when he found out, but it held none of its usual mockeries. Ling knew the homunculus was grateful, even if he would never admit it. Still, if Greed had the story of how he had been able to stick around, he wasn’t telling.

“I was dormant,” he had told Ling when he finally revealed himself. “That’s all you need to know. I’m here now aren’t I? So quit your blubbering, you big baby. You’re embarrassing me.”

So life continued. At first, it was all he ever wanted. He was in a position to best help his country, his friends from Amestris were “ambassadors” who visited quite often, Greed had survived. Well. It wasn’t everything. Ling held Fu’s funeral as soon as he returned to Xing, before he had even been made emperor. He missed the old man, and though she would never admit it, he could tell Lan Fan was doing all she could to cope with the death of her grandfather.

But as time passed, the wounds on their hearts closed and began to heal. Ling began to notice that he didn’t change much as his friends grew older. Ed and Winry had children. Alphonse had grown tremendously. Mustang began going gray, much to his own annoyance. But Ling stayed the same. His face grew more solemn and weary, but he never gained the lines and creases of age. If he avoided mirrors, he could almost pretend he was growing with them, but the hope was never meant to last. The first death shattered that illusion long before Ling was ready. Far too soon, the other began to follow. Winry, then Edward. Alphonse followed not long after. Mei survived another 10 years before her time came. Lan Fan roughed it out until she was a hundred and three.

Every loss was a blow Ling felt he would never get used to. He attended every funeral, and performed his own privately in the palace gardens. A flower for each friend missing. While a majority of the gardens were managed by staff, Ling insisted on doing the work himself. It was the only way he could keep himself from falling apart completely. Greed liked the garden as well. He may not have been close to everyone, but even he had gained a soft spot for the Elrics and their crew. Besides, he could tell Ling was hurting. If this helped, he was grateful for it.

When the last of the flowers were planted, the last of the funerals organized, the last of the bodies placed in the dirt, Ling entered a reclusion like no other. The people of Xing call those days The Years of Mourning. The emperor rarely went outside, and while he still did his best to care for his people, the warmth and friendly air exuded by the palace fell chilly and dark. The world had gone grey.

Though no one would know it, Ling never truly recovered from that time. The world remained in shadow as he looked upon it. His cheerfulness ebbed into quiet contemplation and small smiles. He began talking to Greed out loud, just for the sake of something to listen to. Any of the staff would have said they thought the emperor was going crazy if someone had asked. But they said nothing, and Ling became an oddity among the court. He didn’t care anymore. And so, man became legend. Rumors grew into stories, until any glimmer of the truth was muddled beyond comprehension.   
The oddities didn’t stop there. Far too often, someone would find the emperor grinning with pointed teeth as he listened to the court, elbows on the table, fingertips pressed together in front of his face. Amusement at nothing. It scared those who witnessed it, his seemingly senseless mirth. His eyes were wine red more often than not, rather than their usual dark brown, with cat-like pupils. The beast was contained, but just below the surface. Barely just.

**Author's Note:**

> By popular demand, (and by that i mean 2 comments :p) here's the continuation of Demon Child King, aka Greed lives and Ling is a lonely emperor. It's summer time off of school so y'all are lucky i got time on my hands to write smth this long  
> A few things before i really dig into it:  
> This is gonna be a little weird because I'm writing as if technology hasn't advanced as much as it normally would in two centuries etc etc, but shh this is about Ling saving the world n stuff.  
> It's also gonna be weird because I'm not using the same style as I did Demon Child King? that was more mystical and whatnot like "ooo who is this weird emperor that we find this incredibly interesting because we actually know who he is" and this is. my regular third person writing stuff. gonna plan some sick battle scenes though so those should be fun
> 
> ALSO some other fun shit is in store. becauuuuse a lot of this is gonna be hashtag lonely ling, maybe i'll write a little smth post promised day, everyones still alive/found out how greed lived thing. yknow. for funsies. i actually read a thing on that recently and it was super good and ill never live up to it but yknow. making my own interpretation for world building. anyways def check that other one out its called "i got better (he got better)" and its chillin in my bookmarks somewhere
> 
> i have no idea what an update schedule for this will be like, i'm playing it all by ear. its tricky coming up with a tale of political intrigue bigger than promised day, i got lots of stuff to write if i wanna hit 20k words


End file.
